“Nah,” I told her. “I’m the lucky one.”
Then again, I supposed we’d both lucked out to have found each other, to have this connection I’d never had with anyone elsebefore. To feel like I’d finally found my other half, and to have Owen reassure me at every opportunity that he felt the same.
Owen had become a safe harbor, a soft place to land when I hadn’t been looking for one or knew I needed it.
“So to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” Birdie asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.
“Oh!” I said, remembering myself. “As you know, we’re opening the distillery next week. He doesn’t say it much, but he misses you guys, and I know it would mean a lot to him to have you here. He told me he asked and you all can’t get away from work and whatnot, but I’m wondering if there’s any way I can persuade you? I know it’s short notice, so I understand if it’s just not possible but—”
“Delia,” Birdie cut me off. “He never asked us to come.”
All the air in my lungs left in a whoosh.
“That little shit.”
Birdie barked out a laugh, and in the background, I heard a deep male voice ask, “What’s so funny, Mama?”
“Delia, do you mind if I put you on speaker?”
“Not at all.”
A moment later, the line crackled with more sound, and Birdie said, “Say hello to Owen’s girlfriend, Finn.”
Finn. He had so many brothers it took me a moment to place which one he was. Quickly, I came to the realization that he was the tamer of the twins.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I replied a bit awkwardly. “I’m Delia.”
“Nice to meet you, Delia. Now what exactly did you say to make my mom laugh like that?”
“I called your brother a little shit.”
Finn snorted. “What’d he do this time?”
“Apparently, he told his girl that he invited us out to the opening of their distillery and we couldn’t make it.”
“What the fuck, I never got an invite!” Finn protested.
“Language,” Birdie chastised, seemingly automatically. Knowing her eldest as well as I did, I had a feeling attempting to tame the filthy mouths of her boys was a losing battle.
“Sorry,” Finn mumbled.
“We’re going to need more details, Delia,” Birdie told me.
So I quickly filled them in on the soft opening we were having on Saturday. How my entire family would be there, including my four sisters, a fact that greatly interested both Brigid and Finn, though for different reasons.
I didn’t have the heart to tell Finn three of them were in deeply committed relationships, two of whom were pregnant.
“I’ll pay for your flights and other transportation,” I told them. “Whatever you need.”
Birdie chuckled. “That won’t be necessary, dear girl. We can get ourselves there just fine. You just tell us where to be and when.”
I gave her the address of my parents’ house, thinking it would be a good idea for them to convene there and come to the distillery together. If you were unfamiliar with the peninsula, it could be a little difficult to navigate, and the last thing I needed was Owen’s family getting lost in the wilderness.
“Are you all going to be able to come then?” I asked hopefully.
“I’ll make sure every one of my children gets on that plane, even if I have to physically carry them on it myself.”
